Children Of Myths, Act One: Scotland

Visit from a Banshee

ground, quite fresh and all neat.
Rather curious, they should have been scattered, but no, it was as if they had marched in a row, led by a shepherd.

Following the tracks, they found themselves enveloped in a mist that became thicker and thicker as they advanced. They had to pick up branches from the ground and move forward like blind men so as not to bump into something.
It soon turned into fog. Dark, humid, heavy, so much so that it obscured the rays of the already setting sun.

"Wait!" one of them strained his ears "Did you hear that?"

A vague bleating of a sheep accompanied by the clucking of chickens.

"Over here!"

The group relied on hearing and sticks until they reached an area delimited by stone buildings, monoliths, arranged in a circle.

It looked like Stonehenge, only smaller.

In the middle, shapes of various sizes could be seen, there was no doubt that they belonged to cattle.

"There they are!"

However, as they took a step beyond the buildings, something grabbed their legs and dragged them back. They tried to tear away whatever was clinging to them, finding that it was grass and vines. Any attempt to cut the ropes with knives was immediately rebuked by the elders.

"Put your knives away, now!"

From the mist emerged a figure suspended in mid-air with hair flying and eyes that seemed to peer into their souls.

"Get out"

A female voice, ethereal but stern.

"Neighbors, forgive us, we did not know this was your sanctuary!"

"I said get out, or you will lose your hearing for eternity!"

"But...!"

"GET OUT"

That scream could have shattered the glass and almost did the same to their eardrums. The poor men had to run away as fast as they could to avoid becoming deaf for life.

Only when they were far away the noise ceased and the figure in the fog return to the middle of the circle of monoliths among the cattle.

A goat began to bleat in protest.

"What did you say?"

The mysterious woman crouched in front of it, listening to its snorts and hisses.

"You're called Gigi, right?"

It bleated again, stomping its hooves on the grass.

She put a hand to her mouth "Oh. They were your masters..."

She sighed and her tone of voice became embarrassed, but with a hint of annoyance.

"They shouldn't have brought iron weapons here. It's a sacred place."

Gigi took a corner of her dress in its mouth and tugged hard. Along with it, the other goats, sheep, a cow and some chickens joined in protesting.

"Are you telling me..." The Neighbor covered her mouth "Are you seriously telling me that your best friend is one of us?"

She picked him up, "Where is she now?"

Fìor Tobar Beinne.

A small village located on top of one of the hills in the valley. She would have recognized it by an apple orchard belonging to the goat's family.

"Stay here, no one will hurt you"

The figure dissolved into the fog and floated like a ghost in the direction where the intruders had escaped.